NewInnovating in the Public Sector

Dates:

• 1 - 5 September 2025 - London (£2,850)

Course Outline

Ministers, Department Heads and individual public sector policy makers and managers are having to deal with the ever-growing challenge of dealing with new, complex and systemic societal and organisational problems that simply cannot be dealt with or solved using classic, existing government practices, processes, tools and ways of thinking. The world of policy-makers, programme providers and managers is crying out for innovation – new ideas, policies, approaches, services, products and ways of doing things. Yet, being innovative in the public sector can carry significant risks.

How can you change the culture of your organisation and your colleagues – and even your managers and decision-makers – from one of “accepting the status quo” and “doing things right” to one of “challenging the status quo” and to doing “new right things in new ways”?

This workshop is designed as an integrated, experiential one-week “Policy/Innovation Laboratory” where the latest theories, models, innovation tools, processes and best practices are presented and immediately applied to “real-life” situations in order to develop new perspectives, insights and possibilities.

Course Objectives: 

On completion, you will be able to:

• Acquire a range of innovation processes, concepts and tools and apply them in real-life situations
• Better identify the barriers to innovation in your own work environment and develop ways to overcome them
• Identify your own innovation strengths and weaknesses and become a better, more natural and instinctive innovator
• Develop some concrete innovation solutions and approaches to innovation challenges in your own work environment.

Key Topics

• Classic and customised innovation processes
• Alternate problem/question definition 
• System-viewing and stakeholder analysis and inclusion
• Changing perspectives
• Achieving the 4th level of “generative conversations”
• The conversation value chain
• Development of the traits of being an innovator
• Social Presencing Techniques; Vertical Growth; Body Dispositions; Story-telling
• Deep Democracy/ Art of Hosting techniques
• Overcoming the risks of and barriers to innovation
• Innovation tools, e.g. Contrarian Assumptions; SCAMPER; the Six Hats
• 3D & 4D Mapping and Sculptures
• Prototyping and piloting
• Innovative Life-Mapping and action planning